


2001

by alittlepieceofgundamwing_archivist



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe, Lemon, Light Angst, M/M, Yaoi, by Anria
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-31
Updated: 2018-01-31
Packaged: 2019-03-12 00:44:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13536075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alittlepieceofgundamwing_archivist/pseuds/alittlepieceofgundamwing_archivist
Summary: by Anria





	2001

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Dacia, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [A Little Piece of Gundam Wing](https://fanlore.org/wiki/A_Little_Piece_Of_Gundam_Wing), which closed in 2017. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after July 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [a little piece of gundam wing collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/alittlepieceofgundamwing/profile).

Heero stood at the front of his tap class and scowled. Not that this was unusual. But today there was a reason for his scowl, and its name was Duo Maxwell.  
  
The boy had recently moved into the town, and had quickly taken over both school and extra-curricular activities. He was far more intelligent than he acted, as proved by his test scores, an incredibly good sportsman, and, something that annoyed Heero more than any of these other things, he was a good tap dancer.  
  
When Heero had first begun tap lessons it had been at the insistence of his parents. He had complained long and loudly, articulate for the first and last time in his life, yet after he had passed learning the basics, he had found he truly enjoyed doing the dancing. He was also very good at it; even when he had not liked doing the dancing, he had applied the same narrow-minded focus that made him excel at everything. Once he began enjoying the dancing, he outstripped all of his fellow classmates in the lessons and landed starring roles in their productions. He was a very good tap dancer.  
  
However, Duo was better.  
  
Duo had a natural grace and litheness which made his tap that much better than Heero's. He also had a more extensive range of facial expressions. His charm, intelligence, athleticism and dance talent all added up to make Heero really not like the boy.  
  
But the worst part of it all was he knew Duo had done nothing to deserve it.  
  
Indeed, Duo was nice to everybody. While some girls swooned over him, others who didn't came to him for help with their love lives. Boys did the same, too. How Duo could have so quickly become the person everyone went to with their problems was beyond Heero.  
  
He thought back to the first time he had met Duo.  
  
+  
  
<<Flashback>>  
  
Heero was sitting in his physics class when he first met Duo. He loved physics; it was his favorite subject, and he was very good at it.  
  
Expecting the teacher to begin lecturing, he was surprised when the man said, "Class, today we have a new student." He gestured for a boy who had been hiding in the doorway to move forward. "Please introduce yourself."  
  
The boy was unusual. He was small, around five foot three or five foot four, yet didn't look as though he still had more growing to do. He was dressed in black jeans and a red shirt, had a beaming grin on his face, and a waist-length braid of hair. He raised a hand, the other stuffed in his pocket. "Hiya," he said, and Heero was surprised to hear his voice was a baritone. He thought it would be higher. "My name's Duo Maxwell. Pleased to meet ya."  
  
The teacher smiled and nodded. "Take the seat beside Heero," he said, and Heero raised his hand so the boy knew where he was. "He's my best student: he can fill you in on the work we've been doing."  
  
So Duo walked through the rows, braid swinging, to come sit beside Heero. He dropped his bag on the desk and grinned. "Hiya," he said again, holding out his hand. Heero shook it, and once again the boy surprised him by giving a shake every bit as strong as his own. "Duo Maxwell."  
  
"Heero Yuy."  
  
Duo grinned again (not that he'd stopped in the first place) and sat. Heero passed him his notes from the last few lessons. Duo flicked through them.  
  
"Potential and kinetic energy, huh? Done it. Good notes."  
  
"Hn."  
  
"Not a talker, eh?"  
  
"Hn."  
  
Duo chuckled. They got down to the lesson.  
  
Throughout the course of the lesson, whenever Heero put his hand up to answer a question, Duo beat him to it. And the worst bit of it was he got the answers right, too. It began to annoy the Japanese boy.  
  
Next lesson was basketball. Duo and Heero were on opposing teams, and Heero made the fatal mistake of underestimating the braided boy's talent for the game. Duo stole the ball away from him easily and Heero found himself being laughed at.  
  
He hated being laughed at.  
  
It went on like that. At lunch, Heero braced himself for the onrush of giggling females that always seemed to pounce on him when he entered the cafeteria, yet found they were in a crowd around a laughing, talking, animated braided idiot. Even Relena was in the gaggle surrounding him.  
  
In a way it was a relief to get rid of the girls, and in the way it wasn't. It proved more than anything else how fickle the girls were and that they didn't value him for him. For some reason that bugged him.  
  
It didn't help when Relena, the girl he had been dating for nearly a year, told him she had been asking Duo for advice with their relationship. Asking him what Heero's behavior could mean. Heero asked her what the fuck she meant, his behavior? Relena said he had been withdrawn recently. Heero told he her was always withdrawn. Relena said yes, but recently even more so, and she'd been worried about why. Heero told her if she didn't trust him enough to let him do what he wanted without going to an unofficial relationships councilor, perhaps they would be better off apart. A blazing row had followed, and it resulted in the end of their relationship.  
  
In a way, Heero was grateful. Relena had become extremely annoying, and he didn't know what he was supposed to do about it and his growing dislike of her. When they had begun dating, everything was la-de-da, but after that it kind of went downhill. She wanted more than he was prepared to give anyone. Sex, sure. They'd done that. But she wanted him to promise her that he would be hers always, and when his logical mind told him no one knew the future, he knew he couldn't do that. It wasn't that he had been planning to break it off with her, but Relena seemed to take it that way and was only content that he wasn't six months after she had asked for the promise.  
  
Despite that, Heero hadn't really wanted to break it off with her. As annoying as she could be, Relena was also more intelligent and logically-minded than her predilection for pink would have suggested, and he valued her for her mind more than anything. Now they weren't even passing civil pleasantries with each other.  
  
And all this added up. Heero found himself no longer the teachers' star pupil, no longer the one they trusted to arrange experiments and no longer the one they called on in class when no one else had the answer. He found himself contemplating his severe lack of social graces when, once the girls and Relena had abandoned him in favor of Duo, he found himself alone. He found himself in harsh competition with Duo on the sports field, but Duo was faster and more agile than him even though he had better endurance and so he usually ended up second-best in those contests.  
  
The last straw came when Duo came to his tap group.  
  
<<End flashback>>  
  
+  
  
Duo was a talented dancer, to be sure, but the way he had taken over everything important in Heero's life in a matter of days really pissed him off. And he hadn't even noticed him in the class, even though he was sure his scowl would set the idiot's clothes on fire.  
  
And now the braided idiot was bouncing up to him with a broad grin on his face, having finally spotted him. "Hey, Heero!" he said. "I didn't know you were in this class, too!"  
  
"Hn."  
  
"Y'know, I always used to wonder why I loved doing tap and nobody else did," the boy rattled off, not in the least deterred by Heero's monosyllable response. "All my friends said only a loser would do tap, but now I can prove them wrong! You're here, after all!"  
  
"And what does my being here have to do with anything?"  
  
"What, you don't know?" Duo's violet eyes widened as he waited for a response. When he didn't get one, he kept talking anyway. "Everyone thinks of you as the big macho guy of the school! Well, maybe not big," he amended, his own diminutive size leaving him on eye level with Heero's nose, "but everyone's close to afraid of you, boy! And you don't know?"  
  
"They're afraid of me because I put the last boy who teased me in hospital," Heero said, still in his usual monotone.  
  
"Hey, cool! I got a response!"  
  
Thankfully, Duo was prevented from saying any more by the teacher, who was beginning the lesson. "We are going to begin another production, class," she said, leaning against the desk. "In Romeo and Juliet style. Our most talented male dancer and female dancer will play the lead roles of _\--_ surprise, surprise _\--_ Romeo and Juliet. Auditions begin now."  
  
As the evening progressed the teacher soon found herself pondering both Heero and Duo for the role of Romeo, with Duo in favor, and extremely displeased with her female students. None of them reached the level of talent necessary for what she had in mind.  
  
"Stop, stop, stop," she said finally. "That is it. I have found no one for the role of Juliet." She fell silent, frowning and chewing at her lip. The class waited expectantly for her to speak again.  
  
"All right then," she said finally. "I can find two possible solutions. One is that I myself take the role of Juliet, but if I am directing then I cannot do this since I'll need to see the performance. The second is that I ask Duo to take the role of Juliet." She gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry, but the hair would make it awkward for you to be Romeo anyway."  
  
"I don't mind," Duo said, stuffing his hands in his pockets.  
  
"All right then. Duo will be Juliet, Heero will be Romeo _\--_ and smile sometimes during the performance, please Heero. Jenny, you are Lady Capulet, Robert, Mercutio. Ben, you will be. . . ."  
  
"Can I speak to you, please?" Heero interrupted. He was scowling fit to kill and looked severely displeased.  
  
"Sure thing, Heero. Lucy, read these out, please," she said to one of the dancers, handing her a list. The two walked off a way to speak in private.  
  
"I cannot be Romeo if Duo is Juliet," Heero said flatly.  
  
"If you're worried about the interaction the script calls for, then you needn't be. This is a dance show, there aren't even any lines. . . ."  
  
"No. It is Duo himself I object to."  
  
"Oh? Why?" the teacher folded her arms, looking surprised.  
  
"In the few days since he came here he has been instrumental in causing the teachers at my school to no longer value my work, has isolated me from the few friends I have, given me more bruises than I can count in the name of sport, and even caused the break-up with my girlfriend! And now you say we have to work together on this damn performance and I have to _smile_ at the idiot! I can't stand him!" Heero shut his jaw with a snap on his outburst.  
  
"Ah." Rubbing her jaw, the dance teacher looked thoughtfully over at where Duo was making the rest of the group laugh with a ridiculous parody of a dance he had made up. "He appears to like you, though," she said tentatively.  
  
"The worst bit is that everything he's done has been unintentional," Heero growled. "He doesn't mean to do it, he just does."  
  
"Are you certain you can't work with him?" she asked.  
  
"Hai."  
  
Unlike most of the rest of the town, she was used to his occasional slips into his native tongue. She shook her head and her mouth twisted. "I guess this means I'll have to call the whole thing off, then."  
  
"What? Why?"  
  
"You and Duo are undoubtedly my best students. None of the rest of the class come anywhere near you. If you say you can't work with Duo, then I can't go ahead with the performance. There's no one to take either yours or his place. I'd best break the news to them." She began walking towards the students.  
  
"Matte!" The teacher stopped. Heero scowled furiously. He knew how much the performances meant to the rest of the class and the teacher, and, truth be told, he liked them too. "Suppose. . . . Suppose I do work with him," he said. "How long would it be for?"  
  
"The usual length of time," she said, shrugging. "Three, four months."  
  
Heero thought it over, then sighed. "All right," he said grudgingly. "I'll do it."  
  
The teacher smiled. "Arigato, Heero," she said, surprising him. "I knew you'd come through."  
  
+  
  
In the changing rooms, Duo strolled up to Heero as he was finishing tying the laces of one sneaker. "Hey, Heero," he said. "What d'you want to talk to Miss Sensei in there for?"  
  
Heero scowled at his shoe. "None of your business." He wasn't about to let the idiot know how he felt about him. [1]  
  
Duo plonked himself down on the bench beside the silent boy. "We really need to work on your people skills, man," he drawled, leaning back against the lockers.  
  
Heero stood and scowled at Duo instead of his shoe. "No, 'we' don't need to do anything," he said, grabbed his bag and walked off, leaving Duo sitting there.  
  
The braided boy grinned at his retreating back. "Don't wanna make friends, huh?" he said to the now-absent boy. "I don't give up that easy, pal, and I've dealt with harder cases than you." He fell silent, pondering. The last hard case like Heero had been Chang Wufei, but he finally got the boy to crack and open up a bit besides spouting off about justice. He finally teased the Chinese boy out of his reticence enough that he had recently received a letter from him thanking him for his help in getting him and Meiran together.  
  
Before that it had been Trowa Barton. That one had been especially difficult, since he had had to convince Trowa to be honest with himself as well as with others. When Duo had left that town, Trowa and Quatre had just moved in together.  
  
However, none of those ones had been as obstinately antisocial as Heero. It was almost as if the boy had taken a personal dislike to him, which was a problem since Duo had taken an instant liking to him. More than a liking, actually.  
  
Duo had admitted to himself a long time ago that he was gay. Admitting it to the rest of the world was what had made him and Solo move out of the towns housing Trowa and Wufei, since homophobia was rampant there. His adopted brother had given him strict admonishments not to let anything like that happen again, but Duo found it difficult when his eyes kept drifting of their own accord to Heero's ass.  
  
Plus there was the problem of Heero's own orientation. The boy was virtually a confirmed hetero, as his long-running relationship with Relena showed. Duo still didn't understand why that one had broken up, but he had been dismayed with himself to find he was secretly delighted.  
  
But dammit, the silent boy was gorgeous. A real eye-treat. Add to that his intelligence, reticence and glowers and you had a perfect strong silent type. And unfortunately they were the ones Duo always seemed to fall for.  
  
He frowned, nibbling absently on the end of his braid. What to do about this? Experience told him that when you had a strong attraction for someone you barely knew, becoming friends with them often dispelled it, if only because you found they were not what you expected them to be. So, grinning, Duo decided he would become Heero's friend. Grabbing his bag, he went outside to wait for his brother to pick him up.  
  
+  
  
Four weeks later Heero was seriously contemplating killing the braided baka, as he had begun thinking of him as. The boy just would not leave him alone. Not answering any of his questions didn't seem to faze him, nor did what Relena had nicknamed his pet look of 'I'm pissed off so you piss off'. Simply turning on his heel and walking off didn't work. Avoiding him didn't work. Despite his promise not to hurt anyone else since James Trident went into physiotherapy to regain the use of his legs, Heero had begun to wonder if beating the shit out of Duo would work, or if he would have to end up killing him in order to get some peace.  
  
Right now they were in the dinner queue, Duo chattering animatedly at him, not getting an answer and obviously not needing one. _How can one person talk so much?_ Heero thought. _Now I know why I don't talk. Someone else, somewhere in the world, will do it for me._  
  
And the someone seemed to be standing right beside him. _I think Duo's doing his share for at least three people as well as himself_ , Heero thought gloomily. _Is he ever going to shut up?_  
  
Realizing that was a very good question, Heero decided to ask him. "Are you ever going to shut up?" he interrupted the boy's monologue.  
  
"Nope!" Duo replied cheerfully, obviously not sensing the underlying threat. "Solo says I'll still be talking when they put me in the ground."  
  
"I bet," Heero muttered. He'd heard more than enough about Duo's brother.  
  
To his delight, by the end of lunch Duo appeared to have gotten the hint and had vacated his presence. Limbering up in preparation to run a few laps on the school track, Heero became aware of the other boys watching him strangely. He shrugged and ignored it.  
  
The rest of the day was strange, too. People stopped their conversations when he walked in the room and began whispering, eyes locked onto him. Plus Duo was nowhere to be found. By the end of the day the strangeness of it all had begun to bother Heero even more than Duo's incessant chatter. He was in a bad mood by the time he got to his tap class.  
  
Part of his bad mood was the niggling little voice at the back of his head reminding him that he had actually begun to miss Duo's chatter.  
  
Duo wasn't in tap, either. This was extraordinarily unusual, as the boy loved dancing, but what was more so was when Solo, Duo's six foot four blond twenty-year-old brother accosted him outside of the class.  
  
"You're Heero, right?" Heero nodded. "Have you seen Duo? I haven't seen him or heard from him, and that isn't like him. He didn't come home after school, and I've looked everywhere and I can't find him! Do you have any idea where he is?"  
  
"No. He vanished at lunch."  
  
"And you were too busy reveling in the silence to wonder where he went, huh?" Solo's words brought a guilty blush to Heero's cheeks, although his expression did not change. "Never mind. Any idea where he might have gone?"  
  
"No. Wherever he went, he would have gone to tap, and he wasn't here."  
  
"Damn it."  
  
"He might be in the hospital."  
  
"What?" Solo looked alarmed. "What makes you say that?"  
  
Heero shrugged. "He does crazy things sometimes, like jumping off the school roof and climbing the chimney outside the boiler room. He could've pulled one of his stunts and got hurt."  
  
"Would you come with me? You're probably the last person to have seen him."  
  
"All right." It would make a change from going home to the house empty of anything that had life in it more than a few potted plants and a TV. Heero's parents were never there.  
  
Once in the car and driving for the nearest hospital, Solo suddenly said, "Duo didn't . . . do something, did he? Like make an announcement of any kind?"  
  
"What are you asking me for? I try my hardest to ignore him."  
  
"Oh." Solo chewed on his lip, looking worried.  
  
When they arrived at the hospital, there was indeed a Duo Maxwell in residence. He was unconscious, and didn't have his home number on him, so the only thing that had been notified was the school, who apparently had not seen fit to contact his brother.  
  
Heero saw the braided baka lying out on the bed and wondered why he felt such a stabbing shoot of worry and pain.  
  
The doctors said that Duo had been beaten. He had two cracked ribs, a broken nose, numerous bruises and a mild concussion. He had woken up some time ago, but had almost immediately sunk straight into a deep sleep, although not the partial coma it had been previously. He had not woken since then, and the hospital wanted to keep him overnight for checks.  
  
"What happened?" Solo demanded again and again, to no avail. No one knew.  
  
At Solo's request, Heero stayed with him. He didn't know the man and he didn't like his brother, but he had enough manners not to insist he go home _\--_ mainly because Solo would have to drive him and he didn't want to disturb the man's vigil over the younger boy.  
  
Duo did, eventually wake up. Solo instantly began drilling him for what had happened.  
  
"Whoa, whoa, hold up, Solo-man," he said weakly, with an echo of his former grin. "Gimme some time to answer, okay?"  
  
Solo shut up. Both he and Heero waited for an explanation.  
  
"I'm sorry, bro," Duo said, tears coming to his violet eyes. "I _\--_ I _\--_ "  
  
"Tell me you didn't," Solo said. "Oh, Duo, you promised!"  
  
"I told ya, Solo, I can't lie," Duo said. "Lying by letting other people assume things is still lying. Plus those girls needed the truth."  
  
"I said I never wanted to see you in a hospital bed again!" Solo cried.  
  
Heero was, by now, thoroughly confused.  
  
"What are you talking about?" he said.  
  
Duo turned his head with an effort. His customary grin was gone completely. "You didn't read the school newsletter?"  
  
"No. I never read that thing."  
  
"I put an article in it. I came out."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"I came out," Duo repeated, only to find Heero giving him a confused shake of the head. "And you call me an idiot. Heero, coming out means telling people I'm gay."  
  
"You're gay?"  
  
"Yeah." Duo lay back , watching him out of cautious violet eyes.  
  
"And you decided to tell people that because? Duo, in case you hadn't noticed, most people here are so obsessed with following every word the Bible says they don't care who they hurt, or how badly. You _are_ an idiot."  
  
Duo blinked. "You know, Heero," he said. "I think that's the most I've ever heard you say." He waited for Heero to say some more, then cautiously offered, "Are you as mad as they were?"  
  
Heero rolled his eyes. "Duo, I am Japanese," he said. "I was raised in Japan. They're more tolerant of things over there than here. I don't give a shit about your orientation. What I do care about is who are we going to get for your role in tap now?"  
  
Duo started laughing, and found he couldn't stop despite the pain emanating from his cracked ribs.  
  
+

Duo recovered amazingly quickly. Heero decided he might as well try to get along with the boy now, since they were both outcasts and he was the only friend Duo had left. Duo complained the most about his broken nose.  
  
Heero soon had other things to complain about. His association with the boy left the other people in the school convinced they were a couple, and he was soon on the end of hate mail and abusive comments as much as Duo was.  
  
Heero, however, found he could deal with it much more easily than Duo. The braided baka's open nature was easily wounded, while Heero's defenses could have been custom made for such an event as this. Despite all the cruel gossip and abuse they got from people, Heero soon found that once he allowed himself to, he truly liked the violet-eyed boy. For Heero to like _anybody_ was pretty much a miracle in itself.  
  
True to his word, Heero refused to show discomfort over Duo's orientation, although it was the beginning of a personal struggle for him. He had always considered himself to be heterosexual, yet now the presence of an undeniably beautiful bishounen in his life was getting him very confused. He began to wonder if his dislike for Relena had begun because she was Relena _\--_ or because she was female.  
  
Heero was just about to leave the school campus one day when he heard voices. Now on a school campus with 1000+ students this was not unusual, but what they were saying was.  
  
"Stupid faggot boy! We'll send you to where you belong _\--_ in hell!"  
  
Heero began to walk towards the voices, then to run, then to drop his bag and full-out sprint. It was undoubtedly Duo they were talking to, who, while a good fighter, was still not at his full strength after the last beating he'd received.  
  
And obviously, this time the bastards meant business.  
  
Heero burst onto the scene in time to see Duo collapse to the ground, a bruise already blossoming across his cheek. His head hit the concrete hard, obviously knocking him out.  
  
The people beating on Duo all had their backs to him. Heero forced his anger down, and struck up a nonchalant position, leaning against the door frame with arms crossed. "He's down for the count," he observed in his usual flat monotone. The boys all spun around and he was gratified to see a few take a step back, obviously remembering what had happened the last time this group messed with him. "Care to try me instead?" Heero dropped out of his casual position and stood legs braced and fists ready.  
  
"So Yuy's come to defend his lover, has he?" one of the more stupid of the group sneered. "Faggot!"  
  
"I am not gay, although my friend is," Heero replied, focusing on the one who spoke. "Does that make him anything less than human? And I asked you, do you want to try a fight with me instead?"  
  
Heero hoped he could keep them occupied for a while longer. Duo was climbing his way to full consciousness, he could see, and if he kept them talking _\--_ or fighting _\--_ long enough, then maybe Duo would show sense for once in his life and get the hell out of there.  
  
"Why should I bother?" the bully sneered. He seemed to be incapable of any speech that didn't involve a sneer. Heero knew he was afraid, and stalling.  
  
"Then why did you pick on Duo?"  
  
"What do you mean, faggot boy?"  
  
"If you didn't want to mess with me, then why did you pick on my friend?"  
  
This statement implied once and for all that Heero would defend Duo any time the boy was attacked. And he had every intention of upholding it.  
  
"Uh, Mike," one of the boys said hesitantly to the stupid one who kept sneering at him, "you don't wanna mess with him. You remember what he did to James?"  
  
To increase the impact of this statement, Heero allowed an evil smirk to overtake his face and dropped into a back stance, fists raised, obviously martial arts trained and obviously more than willing to kick the crap out of them. Actually, he was wondering where he got the strength of will from not to just lunge for them right then and give the bastards the same treatment he'd delivered to James Trident.  
  
His movement convinced the rest of them, and they ran. Mike found himself alone, facing a pissed off Heero Yuy, who began advancing, switching to a forward stance.  
  
Mike eeped and ran.  
  
Dropping his fists and standing upright, Heero moved over to check on Duo. He found the braided boy fully conscious, and watching him with the strangest expression on his face. Heero grabbed Duo's arm and dragged him to his feet.  
  
"Heero. . . ." The Japanese boy glanced at his friend, moving to extricate Duo's bag from the bush it had been thrown into.  
  
"Nani?"  
  
"Did you mean it?"  
  
"Hn?"  
  
"About if they messed with me, they messed with you?"  
  
"Hai."  
  
"Could you speak English?"  
  
"You speak Japanese."  
  
"A few words, but you've been using it more and more. And what does baka mean?"  
  
Heero didn't reply, handing Duo's bag to him and collecting his own.  
  
"Heero. . . ."  
  
"What now, baka?"  
  
"Do you wanna come round my house for dinner? As a thank you?" At Heero's glare, Duo held up his hands defensively. "I'm not trying to pull a move or anything, man. Just wanna say thank you for helping me out when I'm not in top form."  
  
"The amount you get in fights, you'll never be in top form."  
  
"Hee~ro!"  
  
Heero chuckled. Duo struck a mock pose, one hand clutching his heart and the back of the other against forehead. "Did Heero just laugh? Masaka!"  
  
Heero chuckled again, then reached out on impulse and tugged Duo's braid. "Lead the way, baka."  
  
Duo's whole face lit up with his sudden hopeful smile. "You mean you'll come?" [2]  
  
"Hn."  
  
"I'll take that as yes."  
  
+  
  
Solo looked up when Duo walked in, and blinked in surprise when he saw Heero. Then he caught sight of Duo's black eye and bruised cheek, and his eyes narrowed. "Another fight?" he asked, dropping the plate in the sink and grabbing a towel to dry his hands off with.  
  
"Yeah. I invited Heero for dinner to say thanks for saving my ass." Duo dropped his bag by the door. Heero followed his example. "That okay?"  
  
Solo shrugged. "As long as Heero doesn't mind small portions."  
  
"I don't care," the silent boy said.  
  
Duo just nodded, then grinned. "C'mon Heero!" he said, excited at having his friend around. Duo had too few friends now. "I'll show you the junk heap!"  
  
"Junk heap?" the words floated back through the back door as Duo and Heero vanished outside. Solo shook his head, smiling, and went back to the dishes.  
  
+  
  
Heero soon found out what Duo meant by 'the junk heap'. It was, quite literally, a pile of junk in the back yard, scrap metal, old car pieces, things Heero didn't recognize. Protruding from the middle of this huge pile was an immense tree from which a car tire swung on a string.  
  
Heero had been surprised at the neighborhood Duo lived in. It was almost beyond dilapidated, the sidewalk cracked and some houses with corrugated irons roofs. There was a large black community, whom Duo greeted with cheerful smiles and waves, and who treated him the same. These people obviously didn't care about his orientation. They just accepted him for who he was, which was more than the rich white people at their school were able to do.  
  
"Where are your parents?" he asked, sitting carefully on what appeared to be a rusted car bonnet.  
  
"Never knew 'em," Duo said with a wistful smile. "They died when I was four, and I got sent to an orphanage. Don't even remember my name. Met Solo there, and we've stuck together ever since. Solo, Duo, y'know? We stayed there 'til Solo became a legal adult, and he got kicked out. He got a job and a place then applied for guardianship of me. That was two years ago." He suddenly looked embarrassed. "Sorry, didn't mean to give ya my life story."  
  
"It's okay," Heero said. He looked out over the rest of the communal back yard, noticing a large group of children playing tag. "I hardly ever see my parents," he heard himself say. "They're always abroad. They send money every month and some extra if I ask, and that's about the only contact I get."  
  
"Jeez," Duo said. "And I thought I had it hard."  
  
Heero grinned. Duo eyed him, wondering what had brought this on. "Oh, I don't know," the Japanese boy said. "I don't have gangs out after my blood."  
  
Duo threw a bolt at him. Heero responded by throwing a tin can. That resulted in a full blown fight, only ending when Solo yelled out to them that some of that stuff was dangerous and to stop whatever the hell it was they thought they were doing coz supper was ready.  
  
Grinning and out of breath, the two teenagers came charging in through the door. Heero was shocked to realize that when Solo said small portions, he meant small portions. Normally this wouldn't have done him a snack, but Duo reacted like it was feast, stuffing his face. When Duo said he hadn't had a meal that big in ages, Heero suddenly realized that Solo had actually increased their usual portions in an attempt to hide their poverty from him.  
  
No wonder Duo was so lean.  
  
"I'm gonna have to have you two round my house for dinner some time," he said suddenly. "It'll be better than have the kitchen sitting there collecting dust." He deliberately left some of his food when he saw Duo staring at it hungrily, saying he'd had a large lunch. Duo devoured what was left of his food eagerly.  
  
"Do you ever cook?" Solo asked him.  
  
"I'm a teenager. Cooking is against my religion," Heero said in his usual flat monotone, suppressing a smile when Duo choked on his mouthful and began laughing.  
  
"D'you wanna practice the tap routine?" Duo asked. They didn't have tap practice that night.  
  
When Heero nodded, the two put on their tap shoes, shucked their jackets, and went out into the street to practice. Few people in the area could afford cars, so it was perfectly safe for them to practice in the middle of the road.  
  
Before long they had gathered an audience, and both looked at each other as they simultaneously had the same idea and dropped the routine in favor of improvisation.  
  
Somebody brought a battered radio out, and Duo and Heero began dancing to the sound of guitars and drums in time to the claps of the people who were cheering them on.  
  
Eventually Heero decided he needed a breather and went over to sit on the step to Duo's house, watching his braided baka teach the children some basic tap moves, laughing and giving in when they badgered him to do something complicated.  
  
Wait a minute. . . . _His_ braided baka? Where had that come from?  
  
Heero turned his head slightly when Solo sat on the step beside him to look at the man, then reverted to watching Duo.  
  
"He's really good, isn't he?" Solo said, pride in his voice.  
  
"Yeah," Heero replied.  
  
"He's got a lot of potential. I hope he can get a scholarship. . . . I'd hate to see him stuck in a dead-end job like me."  
  
Heero said nothing.  
  
"Do you think there's a chance he can get a scholarship?" Solo looked desperate. "I mean, he's real intelligent and athletic and he could get a dance one if nothing else, but _\--_ " He looked at Heero. "We've moved three times before," he said. "I insisted on it because Duo couldn't lie about himself, no matter how hard he tried, and the fights got worse, and that automatically disqualified him from any scholarship. I spoke to the board about his potential _\--_ they all said he started fights, and they wouldn't give a scholarship to anyone who did that."  
  
"Duo doesn't start fights."  
  
"I know, I know. He avoids them as best he can, but they don't avoid him." Solo pressed the heel of his hand against his eyes. "Damn it, Heero, just tell me if he has a chance to get a scholarship. I can't afford to send him to college, and I don't ever want to see him end up here."  
  
"For the majority of subjects . . . no," Heero replied. "I've met the board members; they live by the Bible."  
  
"But you said for the majority of subjects," Solo said, clutching at straws. "Is there one where he might get through?"  
  
"Yes. In tap. The board consists of our teacher," Heero said. "She likes Duo, and I'll nominate him."  
  
"You would? Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Solo bounced up, pale blue eyes alight and grinning almost as manically as Duo. "Thanks, Heero!"  
  
Heero said nothing, watching a beautiful braided baka dance down the street, followed by a stream of admiring children.  
  
+

The next few months passed uneventfully. The gangs out for Duo's homosexual blood cooled it when they heard that Heero Yuy would defend his friend if he was ever attacked. No one had forgotten James Trident. They kept an eye out for times when the two were far apart, but never really found them. The two were almost always together.  
  
Quietly, so Duo wouldn't know about it, Heero spoke to the tap teacher, and set the wheels in motion. He also spoke to the board for scholarships attached to the school, the ones who either approved or sent packing potential candidates. He caught each member privately and spoke to them. Neither one of any of these people would ever say what had passed during the discussion, but Heero had his results by the time Duo's birthday rolled around the corner.  
  
In a strange twist of fate, Duo's birthday was the same day as the opening night of their tap show. Heero told Duo he needed to see him after to show to give him his birthday present.  
  
"Oh! Oh! What is it, what is it!" Duo said on hearing this, bouncing up and down while trying to tie his shoelaces at the same time. The teacher/director had allowed him to modify his costume somewhat, so he was dressed in jeans (like the rest of the cast) and a shirt. He somehow managed to look both feminine and masculine at the same time.  
  
"After the show, baka," Heero gently admonished, walloping him on the head.  
  
Duo pouted. "Please?"  
  
"No," Heero said firmly.  
  
Duo pouted some more, giving him the mournful puppy-dog eyes attack.  
  
Heero responded his look that Duo had nicknamed 'Eat Shit And Die'.  
  
Heero won. Duo dropped the look and sighed, rolling his eyes. He finished tying his shoelaces and stood, brushing down the red shirt. It occurred to Heero that he'd only ever seen Duo wear one other set of clothes apart from the black jeans and PE kit. He shook his head, wishing he could do more for the baka yet knowing Duo wouldn't accept charity.  
  
The show was brilliant. The audience loved it, giving them a standing ovation at the end. The clapping and cheering went on long after the cast had given their last curtain call.  
  
"Okay, so now gimme my present!" was the first thing Duo said when they left the stage. He planted himself in front of Heero and stood there, hands on hips.  
  
Heero surprised everyone present by throwing his head back and laughing. "In a minute, baka," he said. "Let me get changed first."  
  
"No! Now!"  
  
"Baka," Heero said, pushing past him. He grinned when he heard Duo's frustrated, "Heero. . . ."  
  
As soon as Heero came out of the changing cubicle, Duo pounced on him. "Now?"  
  
"All right, all right!" he growled. "It's at your house."  
  
"Yippee!" Duo bounced off down the corridor, then ran back to the walking Heero, then ran on. He see-sawed back and forth like that even when Heero growled at him to calm down.  
  
Heero had recently passed his driving test, so he drove them to Duo's and Solo's house. By the end of the ride Duo was wondering out loud how the driving instructor could ever have let Heero pass. He clung onto the door in panic most of the ride.  
  
"Hn. Baka," Heero said, climbing out. Duo's driving was far worse than his.  
  
They were met at the door by a bemused Solo. "Heero," he said, "where did you find that much chocolate. . . ?"  
  
"Chocolate?" Duo's eyes lit up and he ran into the house.  
  
Heero gave Solo a nasty look. "Thanks for ruining the surprise," he said.  
  
"Oh! Oops," was all Solo said. "I have a surprise of my own," he added as he let Heero into the house. "How did the performance go?"  
  
"You weren't there?"  
  
"I couldn't afford the ticket _\--_ and anyway, my boss made me work late again." Solo's boss was a tyrant who seemed to be bent on working him into an early grave for too little pay.  
  
"Tickets are free for family, didn't Duo tell you?"  
  
Solo looked guilty. "Well, yes, he did," he admitted, "but he knows I have to work." He sighed. "I would have given anything to have seen him."  
  
"Wahoo!"  
  
Both young men grinned when they heard Duo's excited yell. "He's found the chocolate," they said in unison.  
  
On entering the kitchen they found Duo sitting in the pile of chocolate on the floor that had apparently fallen out of the wardrobe-sized cupboard when it was opened. He was stuffing his face and grinning like a little child. When he saw Heero he bounced up and charged, hugging for all he was worth and squealing, "Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" at the top of his lungs.  
  
"Ack! Duo! You're getting chocolate on me!"  
  
Duo let go, still grinning like a kid, and dove back into the chocolate pile, giggling. "Yummy!"  
  
Solo shook his head. "You, Heero, are a sentimental sap."  
  
"I know," Heero admitted. "Don't tell anyone, though."  
  
Solo grinned, then raised his voice. "Duo, I have some important news."  
  
"Nani?"  
  
Solo rolled his eyes. "You've been hanging around Heero too much," he said. "Anyway, the news is that I got promoted."  
  
Duo jumped up. "Really?" he demanded.  
  
Solo nodded, a grin spreading across his features even as his eyes betrayed that he had trouble believing it himself. "Yeah," he said. "You're looking at the manager and chief mechanic of Howard's Garages."  
  
Duo's grin looked like it was going to split his face in two. He pounced on his brother, hugging him tight and pounding him on the back. "Well done!"  
  
"Hn."  
  
Both braided boys turned to Heero. Solo narrowed his pale blue eyes. "You're not surprised," he said suspiciously.  
  
"Hn."  
  
"Heero, what did you do?" That was Duo.  
  
"Hn."  
  
"Man, I thought we talked about this. 'Hn' is not a reply, either in English or Japanese. Now what did you do?"  
  
"You're not leaving til you tell us."  
  
Heero rolled his eyes. "I wrote a letter to Howard, you know, the guy who started the whole thing? I commended the service I got from you."  
  
"That can't be all you did," Solo said, eyeing him cautiously.  
  
"I also casually happened to mention that your boss treated you badly."  
  
"What else?" Even Duo was suspicious.  
  
Heero blew out his breath in exasperation. "Oh, all right already! I wrote to Howard and told him that you bent yourself over backwards to help me, your boss treats you and the customers like shit and that I would be telling my father the Senator how good your service was!"  
  
"You _what?!?"_ Solo's eyes were bugging out of his skull. "Heero, I'm grateful and all, but don't you think lying about your parents is going a little far."  
  
Heero mumbled something incomprehensible.  
  
"What was that?"  
  
"I said I didn't lie!" he yelled. "My father is Senator Convy and my mother is the Japanese Ambassador. That's why I never get to see them!"  
  
Both Duo's and Solo's eyes were bugging out of their sockets now. _Major_ facevault.  
  
"You're kidding me, right, Heero?" Duo's voice held a large amount of worry in it.  
  
"No. Sorry."  
  
The next few hours involved Duo and Solo drilling Heero relentlessly about the details of his past and why he had not told them previously he was the son of a Senator and an Ambassador.  
  
"I'm not really part of their official life," Heero said. "That means I don't get to be with them much. They thought it would be better if I didn't have to deal with politics and the media."  
  
That much Duo and Solo could understand. They finally let him go.  
  
"See ya tomorrow, okay?" Duo said at the door. There was a strangely vulnerable note to his voice.  
  
"See you tomorrow," Heero confirmed, then walked off.  
  
Duo watched him leave, his eyes on the strong back. He sighed and pressed his cheek to the doorframe. Heero had done so much for him, for no real reason. He had stuck with him throughout his time in the town, had defended him against gangs out for his blood, had been his friend when no one else would be and didn't care that he was gay. Heero got Solo a promotion so they could afford to have a better lifestyle, and he got Duo enough chocolate to last an entire month! Okay, so with anyone else it would last more than a year, but this is Duo we're talking about.  
  
Duo wondered if Heero would still not care if he was gay if he knew that Duo had fallen hopelessly in love with him. Hopelessly because he felt certain Heero would never want him. He smiled wistfully into the empty darkness outside his house. So much for his plan to get rid of his crush.  
  
+  
  
Heero opened the door to his house to see the majority of the cast there. He had volunteered his mansion for the use of the tap class as a celebration for a job well done. The shows had gone on for a week, with a matinee the next day. Their teacher had called them all together to read the reviews that had appeared in the town's papers.  
  
They were all seated in various places around the living room, on sofas, on chairs, on cushions, on the floor, on the bean bag. Anywhere comfortable. People were drinking casually, chatting away, and nibbling on the snacks they had found when they raided the kitchen.  
  
The teacher stood up and clapped her hand, calling the class to attention. "People, people, calm down," she said, then held up a handful of newspaper clippings. "I have the reviews of our show here." There was an excited silence. Duo was bouncing up and down in his seat next to Heero, on the cushions on the floor.  
  
The teacher cleared her throat, and began reading the first review. " 'The local tap group's adaptation of 'Romeo  & Juliet' is not a conventional Shakespearean romance by any means, or even a conventional tap show. There are no words involved, but this does not detract from the overall impact. The tap rhythms and the music they are to are used to denote mood incredibly successfully.' I'll skip the next bit, since it's describing what we worked on for ages. Ah, here we go _\--_ 'The advisability of using a male dancer to play the role of Juliet is somewhat questionable, but only to those who have not seen the performance. The dancer, Duo Maxwell, plays the role beautifully, combining natural grace and talent with complicated dance moves. The same glowing praise can be applied to Heero Yuy, the dancer playing the role of Romeo as there is an on-stage chemistry between the two in more than their considerable dancing ability that far exceeds even the greatest of expectations. For a production by an amateur tap group, this ranks highly when placed against the professionals. Group dances are stunning in their fluidity and near complete perfection. The dancers should all be commended.' "  
  
There were loud whoops heard throughout the room. People were jumping up and hugging each other, yelling their joy at such a glowing review at the top of their lungs. Heero smiled as he and Duo were engulfed by a crowd of gleeful tap dancers.  
  
"QUIET DOWN!" the teacher had to bellow to get them all to be still. "All the reviews follow the same pattern. You did brilliantly." More cheers, but this ones stopped when she raised a hand. "First of all, I would like to thank Heero for letting us use his house for this."  
  
Duo grinned at Heero as the teacher continued. "I'm very proud of all of you. You worked very hard and turned out brilliantly. As the review columnist said, you are all to be commended." She started a round of clapping that once again disintegrated into cheers and whoops.  
  
"All right, calm down!" she yelled. The class quieted. "Now, you probably all know we opened on Duo's birthday. There's no way you _couldn't_ know, since he was pestering Heero constantly for his present." There were laughs. "Anyway, there were two halves to that present _\--_ no, Duo, it's not more chocolate," she added when his face lit up. "It's something better." With that mysterious comment, she fell silent.  
  
Heero cleared his throat and pulled out a battered, opened white envelope from his jean pocket. "Here," he said, shoving it into Duo's hand.  
  
"Heero, you can do better than just 'here'," the teacher said, fond disbelief in her voice.  
  
Heero glared at her, then slouched back, obviously uncomfortable at giving Duo the envelope.  
  
Duo stared at him, then at the teacher, then at the tap dancers all around who were watching him eagerly. _They_ knew what was in the envelope. He turned to Heero again.  
  
"Well, go on, open it," was all his friend said.  
  
So Duo did. He unfolded the piece of paper, read it, read it through again, then just stared blankly at it. He looked up, unshed tears in his eyes. "I _\--_ I don't understand. . . ."  
  
"Hn. Baka," Heero said gently, staring at the bewildered expression on Duo's face. "It's a scholarship to the college of your choice."  
  
"I _\--_ I can't accept _\--_ you all knew?" Duo got out, choked.  
  
People were silent around the room. The teacher spoke up. "Yeah, we knew," she said. "We all helped to get you it, but not as much as Heero. I think he tracked down every board member in the state and talked to them all privately."  
  
Duo turned to Heero, violet eyes wide with disbelief. "You did this all _\--_ for me. . . ."  
  
"You're my friend, baka," Heero said gruffly.  
  
Duo stared at him, then at the piece of paper, then at him again, and suddenly threw his arms around Heero's neck, sobbing out his joy into his friend's shoulder. Heero looked startled, then tentatively put his arms around the boy.  
  
"Thank you," Duo whispered against his neck, then sat up and reluctantly pulled out of Heero's arms. He grinned at all the people assembled, not his usual manic grin, but a truly happy smile. "Thank you all."  
  
+  
  
Late that night Heero couldn't sleep. A few people had stayed the night, one of them Duo, another their tap teacher, more he couldn't remember the names of. He lay awake in his bed, too aware that in the room beside him a beautiful braided baka was sleeping.  
  
He rolled over and punched the pillow. Damn it! How did Duo do this to him? He was so confused. . . .  
  
A few more hours and he was convinced he wasn't going to get to sleep. He shoved the covers aside and walked out onto the communal balcony that all the bedrooms in this wing of the house had access to.  
  
Heero gripped the iron railing hard, shoulders hunched, his breath steaming in the cold night air. It was close to freezing and he dressed in only shorts and an oversized T-shirt, but he didn't care. The cold air helped him think clearer.  
  
When Duo had arrived, he had changed Heero's life forever. He was no longer one of the most popular kids in the school. He was no longer the sole truly intelligent one in the class. He had lost a large amount of superficial friends, but had gained one true one he valued more than anything. All in all, Duo's arrival had been wholly good.  
  
But Duo's arrival also brought a large amount of confusion with it. Heero had always assumed himself to be heterosexual. Whether that was the American environment he found himself in or not, he didn't know, but he had always assumed that was the case. But now. . . . Now he found himself confused in the extreme over what Duo meant to him.  
  
Was he just a friend? Or were these intense feelings the braided boy created _\--_ more than Relena ever had _\--_ more than those for a friend?  
  
Heero shut his eyes and told himself to think about it logically and thoroughly. That was the way he had been taught to get through a problem, after all. He concentrated on Duo, and on the feelings Duo conjured in him.  
  
And after his deep self-inspection was over, Heero knew, without a shadow of a doubt, what the feelings were.  
  
He was in love with Duo.  
  
+  
  
Duo sighed and rolled over for what seemed like the hundredth time that night. As hard as he tried, he just could not get comfortable.  
  
He sighed again and flopped onto his back, limbs akimbo. _All right then, Maxwell_ , he said to himself, _might as well admit what's keeping you awake_. So, once again with a sigh, Duo did.  
  
It was Heero. Damn him! _Why_ did he have to be so kind? Sure, he'd deny it as hard as he humanly could, but the guy was kind. And generous. And loyal. And drop-dead gorgeous. And heterosexual.  
  
Duo growled to himself. That was the real reason for his complaints about Heero. The boy was _perfect_ , plain and simple, and a better friend than he could ever wish for. He had gone to extreme lengths to improve Duo's life, getting his brother and guardian a better job so he could pay for more food and clothes and better healthcare and all the things they had needed. . . . And now this. A scholarship. _'To the college of my choice'_ , Duo mused. Then he sat bolt upright in shock. _Holy shit! That means. . . . I could go to Harvard! Or Yale! Jesus H Christ!_ He collapsed back against the pillows.  
  
And Heero had arranged it all. Heero had put himself on the line for him, had done everything he could for him. And there was no way Duo could pay him back. Ever.  
  
"I love him," Duo said aloud, then his eyes widened as he realized what he had just said, and its ultimate truth. "I love him. . . ."  
  
Duo swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. He needed some fresh air.  
  
Wrapping a robe around himself, Duo opened the French window and stepped out onto the balcony. He glanced around and started in shock as he saw a familiar figure straighten and turn its head towards him.  
  
_Great, just what I need. I come out here to try and clear my mind of the problem of_ him _, and there he is, standing there looking damn fine. . . ._  
  
"What are you doing out here, Duo?"  
  
The question was gently asked, unusual for Heero. "Couldn't sleep," he replied, shrugging a shoulder. He began walking towards Heero. "What about you?"  
  
"Me neither."  
  
Duo stopped in the middle of walking towards his friend and love when Heero turned towards him suddenly. "Do you know why I came out here, Duo?"  
  
"No, why?"  
  
Heero took a step closer. That took off a third of the distance between them. "I realized I'm in love."  
  
Duo felt his heart climb in the direction of his shoes at this. "Who are you in love with?" he asked, trying to sound cheerfully interested. "Who's the lucky girl?"  
  
Heero took another step closer, halving the distance between them. "I'm not in love with a girl," he said softly.  
  
"What? But Heero, I thought you were _\--_ "  
  
Heero crossed the remaining distance between them and put a finger over Duo's lips. They were standing so close Duo could feel the other boy's heat as though it was his own. He shivered and tried not to let Heero's proximity affect him. He failed.  
  
Heero stared into Duo's eyes, the violet turned black with the lack of light. The cold blue light of the moon etched one part of Duo's face in stark black and white, which only made it all the more beautiful. Heero knew he couldn't wait any longer, but then he had know that once he had admitted to himself that was in love. "It's you," he whispered.  
  
Before Duo could ask him what he meant by 'It's you', Heero's lips were on his. Duo's eyes fluttered shut of their own accord, his shock not affecting his instinctive response in the slightest. When Heero's thumb gently nudged his chin and his tongue swept across Duo's upper lip, Duo parted his mouth willingly and, determined not to lose a moment of this precious dream, responded in kind when Heero plundered his mouth, slowly and thoroughly.  
  
Duo had just about decided this was a dream. He had been having too many dreams like this recently, with Heero taking him in his arms and loving him. One of the dream-Heero's large, warm hands slid inside the robe, pressing Duo against him, the other cupping his face. Duo slid his own hands up around Heero's neck, playing with the soft, silky hair he found there. The kiss continued, slow, deep, and passionate.  
  
In Duo's dream, Heero slid his other hand from Duo's face and inside the robe around Duo's waist, both fists bunching the oversized T-shirt he wore to bed up and warm hands slipping under it, strong fingers trailing the upper edge of his boxers, then both sliding up and pressing flat against his spine. Duo made a small sound of pleasure as Heero tugged him close, caressing the strong muscles of his back.  
  
Heero broke the kiss, pressing his forehead to Duo's. Duo made a sound of discontent.  
  
"Duo. . . ." Heero gasped, out of breath. For a slow kiss, it had really got his body going. "Duo _\--_ come to bed with me. . . ."  
  
Duo knew this was a dream. A wonderfully intense and realistic dream, but still, it had to be a dream. And if it was a dream, he wasn't about to miss a damn second of it. He would show Heero what it felt like to be taken. "Yes," he said. "I _\--_ I want to show you something... "  
  
Heero smiled. The two made their way into Heero's room.  
  
+

Deep in the night, Heero lay on his back, entwined with his lover. Duo's head was on his chest, an arm and leg lying over his. One of Heero's arms wrapped around Duo's sleeping form, the hand playing gently with the soft waterfall of unbound hair.  
  
Heero closed his eyes, feeling the rapture in his body and soul. Duo was his. Duo loved him. . . .  
  
+  
  
<Flashback>  
  
"More," Heero groaned, burying his fists in Duo's thick chestnut hair, raising his hips to meet the boy's as he drove into him in deep, slow thrusts. Every thrust hit that spot inside him that made pleasure burn throughout his body, and he wanted more.  
  
Duo groaned, hanging his head. It was good Duo knew what to do, because although Heero had been with women _\--_ well, more specifically, _a_ woman _\--_ and he had a pretty good idea of how two boys would work, he didn't know for sure.  
  
At Heero's plea, Duo gave more. The pleasure Duo was giving him built, and built, and built, until Heero couldn't take it any more and came, screaming Duo's name and spattering both of them with semen.  
  
But it was what Duo said after he came, screaming Heero's name the way he had screamed Duo's, that gave him more pleasure than anything could ever describe.  
  
"I love you. . . ." came the whisper, followed by a soft kiss on his neck.  
  
Heero stared up at the ceiling, tears of joy filling his eyes. "I love you, too, Duo," he whispered.  
  
<End flashback>  
  
+  
  
Heero shifted, pulling the covers up tight around the two of them, moving so that he could put both arms around the boy in his bed. "Aishiteiru, Duo," he said, and smiled. Not dai suki, suki desu or even koi shiteiru, but the full-out ai shiteiru. Heero smiled as he fell asleep.  
  
_His_ Duo.  
  
+  
  
The tap class teacher yawned and trudged down the stairs of Heero's mansion into the kitchen. All the other guests were up, apart from Duo and Heero.  
  
"Where're Duo and Heero?"  
  
"Still asleep," Lucy replied. "We were gonna let them sleep and leave a note saying we'd gone."  
  
The teacher nodded. Sensible.  
  
+  
  
Duo found the dream slipping away as he rose towards consciousness. He whimpered and tried to stay asleep, supremely happy in the dream of Heero's strong warm arms around him and not wanting to face the harsh reality of an empty bed.  
  
Then his eyes snapped open in shock.  
  
It wasn't a dream.  
  
Wide violet eyes slowly traveled up the strong chest muscles close to his face, up the neck column, along the strong jawline, and to a face he knew so well.  
  
_Holy shit! I've died and gone to heaven!_  
  
Heero was still asleep, features young and vulnerable without their usual scowl. Duo held his breath, afraid to wake the other boy lest it all shatter to pieces and prove to be nothing more than a carry-over from his dream.  
  
Hesitantly, Duo lifted a hand and put his finger on Heero's lips. He softly traced the full lower lip, rubbing back and forth. Yup, it was real all right. He was here, in Heero's arms, in Heero's bed.  
  
Heero stirred and mumbled something, his grip tightening on Duo. The braided boy decided to find out once and for all if this was a dream. He leaned forward and replaced his finger with his lips, licking Heero's lower lip gently. His mouth was slack in sleep, so Duo slid his tongue into the warm, wet cavern.  
  
Heero had obviously woken up by this time, as his hand came up to cup the back of Duo's head, responding to the kiss eagerly.  
  
Duo pulled back, staring down at Heero, who regarded him with heavy-lidded eyes. "Pinch me," he said.  
  
Heero blinked. "Nani?"  
  
"I want to know if I'm dreaming or not. Pinch me."  
  
So Heero did.  
  
"Ouch!" Duo yelled as his nipple was tweaked. Then tears filled his eyes as he realized what that meant.  
  
"Duo?" Heero sat up. "Did I hurt you that much?"  
  
Duo flopped onto his back and just stared up at Heero. _He said he loves me_. "Last night. . . . You said you love me."  
  
Heero frowned. Was Duo having second thoughts? "I do love you."  
  
A smile took over Duo's face, tremulous but more real and happier than his manic laugh. The tears in his eyes spilled as he smiled, and, concerned, Heero wiped them away with his thumb.  
  
"Duo? What's wrong?"  
  
"Nothing," Duo said. "Nothing is wrong at all. That's why I'm crying."  
  
This made less sense than usual. Heero told him so.  
  
"I love you too," Duo said. "Now kiss me, you big idiot."  
  
That, at least, Heero could understand. He kissed Duo as gently as he had last night, lying on top of him and caressing the lean length of the boy's body with one hand. He hooked Duo's free leg around his waist, as Duo rubbed the other one between his thighs.  
  
The braided _\--_ well, now unbraided _\--_ boy tried to roll them over. Heero held him down and pulled back just far enough to whisper, "It was your turn last night _\--_ now it's mine."  
  
Duo had no complaints.  
  
+  
  
After that, things changed. Duo and Heero spent every available moment in each other's company, although whether they were discussing where to go to college or doing something else entirely is not something anybody knew for sure.  
  
Heero, being a bluntly honest person, now agreed with the people in the town who tried to antagonize him by calling him a fag and Duo his 'short, girly-haired' lover. It infuriated them beyond belief when Heero kept saying, "Yes, I am gay," and "Yes, he is my lover," to what they said. Duo thought this was extremely funny.  
  
Before they knew it, school was over. Their exam results were in; near perfect scores for both of them. Heero graduated as valedictorian, Duo the next one in line for that position. The two of them applied for, and got, a place in one of the top colleges in the country, the Isaac Newton Science  & Dance College [3]. True, it was an unusual combination, but the college had an excellent reputation.  
  
Duo and Heero found an apartment together near the college. Solo insisted on helping pay the purchasing costs, as he decided that now he could afford it he would not be beholden to Heero for anything. Never mind that Heero kept telling him he didn't owe him.  
  
On the first day, there was to be an assembly of the new class, no matter what courses they were taking. If you were starting in the college that year, you showed up at the assembly.  
  
The guy who gave the assembly was long and boring. Duo found himself falling asleep on Heero's shoulder. People began shifting restlessly. They were standing outside the college on a bright summer's day, but the old guy who was droning on and managing to put to sleep most of the people there made it seem like the middle of winter.  
  
_Just a few more minutes_ , Heero thought to himself, then smiled wistfully down at Duo, who was leaning against him on the verge of snoring. _A few more minutes of this and I'll be joining him._  
  
+  
  
Quatre rolled his eyes at the man still speaking and turned to something more interesting: looking out over the throng of people. There were all kinds there, women of all ages in everything from short skirts to business suits to jeans, men once again of all ages whose hair ranged more than the women's, from tomahawks to short stubble to long braids. . . .  
  
Long braids?  
  
Long _braid_.  
  
Quatre searched the crowd again for the man he had seen with a long braid. There! Leaning against another guy who looked like he'd never had a pleasant thought in his life, black jeans, red shirt, long chestnut hair. . . .  
  
The man turned a little and Quatre's eyes widened.  
  
"Trowa!" he hissed, tugging on the arm of the tall boy beside him. "Look over there!"  
  
Trowa looked. His one visible eye widened. "Duo?"  
  
"He's here! He must have got a scholarship! We have to go talk to him!"  
  
Thankfully, at that point the man had finally stopped talking, and the assembly was over. People began walking around, and Quatre charged through the crowd towards where he had last seen Duo.  
  
"Uh _\--_ Quatre _\--_ " Trowa could see over the people's heads, which his lover could not. "Do you know that guy with him?"  
  
"No, why?"  
  
"Because they're. . . ."  
  
Fortunately, at that point Trowa did not have to describe what the two were doing, as a gap in the crowd allowed Quatre to see.  
  
+  
  
Heero was getting fed up. They'd been here several hours, and he had noticed his Duo getting more than a few admiring looks from both male and female members of the crowd. Several times some girls had made their way up to the two, and begun flirting outrageously with Duo.  
  
Well, he'd had enough. Duo had kindly told the girls he already had a lover, and had made it quite clear by putting an arm around Heero's waist, but that didn't seem to deter the guys or some of the girls.  
  
_Only one way to fix that_ , Heero thought to himself, and said, "Duo?"  
  
Duo looked up at him and smiled, love in his eyes. "Yeah, Hee-chan?"  
  
Ever since Heero had made the mistake of telling Duo about the Japanese endearment, the braided baka had employed it whenever addressing him. Oh, if only his mother could see them now. She'd laugh her ass off.  
  
Heero pressed his forehead against Duo's, ignoring the startled look. "You're mine, right?"  
  
"Right," Duo said, confused.  
  
"Well now I'm going to prove it to the rest of the people within sight of us."  
  
Before Duo could ask him how, Heero's tongue was down his throat.  
  
+  
  
"Well, it looks like Duo's found someone too," Quatre said with a bright smile as he regarded the couple. Arms around each other, the strange boy and Duo were quite blatantly tongueing in the middle of the courtyard.  
  
Trowa smiled. As he and Quatre started forward again, the two kissing broke it off, smiling at each other. Well, Duo was smiling. The strange boy had a look on his face that implied a smile when it actually wasn't.  
  
"Duo!"  
  
Duo jumped, and pulled away slightly, turning to Quatre with a grin. "Q-man! How're you doin'?" he cried, enveloping the blond boy in a bear hug. He saw Trowa, and said, "Tro! Good to see ya!"  
  
"Who's your friend?" Quatre asked, gesturing towards the boy who was standing there with an expressionless face.  
  
"Oh! Q-man, this is Hee-chan."  
  
"Heero Yuy," the boy said, holding out a hand. "And you are?"  
  
"Quatre Raberba Winner," Q-man said. "Duo-speak takes a while to get used to, doesn't it?"  
  
"Hn."  
  
"Hee-chan, I thought I told you about this! 'Hn' is not a word in either English or Japanese, so you can't use it as a reply!"  
  
"My name is not 'Hee-chan', it is Heero. I would have thought you would know that by now."  
  
"Would you rather I called you the English translation, Heero da _\--_ "  
  
"Shut up Duo."  
  
Duo grinned, unrepentant. "You'd rather have it so nobody else knows what I'm calling you, _right_?" he said.  
  
Heero gave him a death glare, then promptly ignored him. "And you are?" he said, turning to Trowa.  
  
"Trowa Barton," Trowa replied, shaking Heero's hand. "How long have you two been together?"  
  
"About two months," Duo said cheerfully, glomping Heero. Heero permitted it with a stoic expression, but Trowa noticed his arm holding Duo to him.  
  
"Maxwell!"  
  
"How many people do you know, Duo?" Heero asked as a Chinese man and woman came up to them.  
  
"More than I can keep track of," Duo replied, then yelled, "Hiya Wu-man!"  
  
"My name is Wufei," Wufei replied, coming to stand in the small group with Meiran. "I see you got your scholarship. Who are your friends?"  
  
"Quatre Raberba Winner," Quatre said.  
  
"Trowa Barton."  
  
"Meiran Chang," Meiran said.  
  
"Chang Wufei."  
  
"Hey great, you guys got hitched!" Duo said to them. "This is Hee-chan, by the way."  
  
Wufei snorted, then looked at Heero. "Do you understand Japanese?"  
  
Heero looked at him. "Do you?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Heero looked away. "Then no I don't."  
  
"Heero, you are Japanese," Duo complained, glomping him again after an extended hug fest with Meiran and Quatre.  
  
Wufei snickered. Heero gave him his best 'Eat Shit And Die' look. "It's not my fault the baka insists on calling me that," he groused.  
  
"I'll agree with you on the baka front," Wufei said.  
  
A long conversation followed involving how each person knew Duo, what Duo had done for them, and where everyone was staying. By some strange quirk of fate, they had all ended up in the same apartment block. Soon everyone knew the others and liked all of them.  
  
One night they were all in Duo's and Heero's apartment, the lights off, watching a horror movie late in the night. Quatre frowned to himself, his concentration on something other than the TV.  
  
The relationship between Heero and Duo seemed . . . odd, to say the least. Quatre had never seen Duo so happy before, or anyone so blatantly in love, but Heero. . . . Well. He addressed Duo all the time as 'baka', which Wufei said meant 'idiot', and apart from that one kiss the first time they had met him, Quatre had never seen him give Duo another affectionate gesture.  
  
But Duo seemed happier than Quatre had ever known him. It didn't make sense.  
  
Quatre gave up looking at the TV screen and focused on Duo and Heero instead. They were stretched out on the couch, Heero supporting Duo. Duo's eyes were mostly closed, his attention obviously not on the film even though normally he would be glued to it. His head was tucked under Heero's chin, his legs between Heero's. Quatre's gaze switched to Heero. The Japanese boy was nuzzling Duo's hair gently, his arms around the boy. Quatre suddenly noticed one was under Duo's shirt, softly moving back and forth in a caress low on Duo's stomach, while the other hand had its fingers twined with Duo's.  
  
Even as the blond boy watched, their heads twisted slightly, and they exchanged a soft kiss. So that was it. Looking at Heero, Quatre could see the almost wistful expression on his face, wonder there as he looked at Duo. The expressionless mask had fallen away, showing what was under the surface, and Quatre as instantly relieved. Heero loved Duo at least as much as the braided boy loved him _\--_ he just didn't show it in public.  
  
Quatre switched his gaze to Wufei and Meiran. The two Chinese people were entwined much the same way Duo and Heero were, except they were focused on the movie, and Meiran lay on her side instead of her back. The blond Arabian looked up at his lover, and saw Trowa smiling down at him. He could never resist that look: he kissed him.  
  
Quatre was a firm believer in soulmates, and he also now firmly believed that the three couples in the room were meant to be together, despite Wufei's frequent protestations about onnas and Heero calling Duo a baka. He also believed in reincarnation, and wondered in how many lives they would meet and love each other. He shivered suddenly, as though gripped in a horrible premonition.  
  
Or would their lives bring more pain than joy. . . ?

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is the crappest ending I have ever done. So sue me. It was this or have the damn thing go on forever.
> 
> [1] No, not like that! Hentai!
> 
> [2] Please, no more hentai innuendoes!
> 
> [3] Yes, I made this college up. I had to find something that would suit both of them.


End file.
